Legacy of September 11th 2001

I was driving home a couple of days back when I saw a fire truck on the adjacent lane with an American Flag pinned at the back of the truck with words like “Remembering the fallen friends on Sep 11”. That spurred me to write this post.

To me the biggest legacy that is left behind of that horrific attack is labeling the entire Muslim population as terrorist. The relationship between the western world and the followers of Islam completely changed after that day. While it is more than just a coincidence that the perpetrators of most of the violent and barbaric terrorist attack has been Muslims; yet to label the entire Muslims of the world as terrorist is not rational or logical either.

Recently, I watched on CNN, the Pastor in one of the church in US has publicly called for burning Quoran on the anniversary of that tragedy. Nothing can be more insidious than this. One of the foundations of American society is separation of Church and politics and religious tolerance. To me the pastor is as much an extremist as any other extremist in Islam. However, while burning the Quoran is mere symbolic, the amount of attention that this has generated worldwide is amazing. Even the President of US, Barack Obama has pitched in asking the Pastor to refrain doing this lest there would be more damage to the American interest world wide.

The arguments for and against building a mosque near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan seems to have become a national and international pass time. While the American constitution gives the liberty to practice any religion, the bigger question that the common man in general is asking is whether it is wise to construct a mosque near ground Zero. While the Americans who lost their loved ones and still have not found their body for the proper burial, the sentiments run extremely high and rightfully so. For others who may not have lost any near and dear ones, the logic of building a mosque near Ground Zero does not make sense because many Americans equate Muslims with terrorist and cannot take a broader view of Muslims and Islam. For very few people, the question is generating thoughts like “why not allow the Muslims to build a mosque near Ground Zero?”. After all doesn’t the American constitution allows practice of religion? However, as Obama has nicely summed up saying “while the American constitution guarantees the right of practicing one’s own religion and hence mosque can be build near Ground Zero but the common sense and wisdom says that it might end up hurting the sentiments of majority of Americans. And don’t we agree that in democracy the majority has the final say irrespective of the logic and reasoning?

This also brings to the forefront the role of media in fanning such debates that in turn generates more viewership. The entire world has shrunk in the last 20 years in terms of dissemination of news. Within a couple of hours of some events taking place, people from Bangalore to Beijing and New Delhi to New York starts getting the news and start forming their own opinion. With such rapid global dissemination of information, it is the responsibility of the media to rein in such news and debates that does not add value to any one of us except reigniting the painful memories. Instead of healing, such reckless transmission of news and information ends in hurting.

The true legacy of Sep 11 would be to punish the people responsible for the heinous act, bring closure for the families of those who died and understand the difference between Moderates and Extremist in all religion be it, Jews, Christian, Hindu or Islam. Burning religious books or building places of worships that can trigger violence is another example of how we have yet to realize the true potential of homo sapiens.

I urge my readers to let me know what they think of the legacy of Sep11 2001